Difficult to call this "hiking" with a straight face, but you can certainly walk some miles on the many paved trails and stairways around the falls and state park. Regardless of that, every American (and Canadian) should ride the Maid of the Mist to experience the power of this world wonder.

Use to live in the Buffalo area. Been to the Falls many times. Even biked the 40 miles to get there a couple of times. It's been over 20 years since I've been back, would like to get there again some day soon.

While it is not permitted to climb the falls, people do climb parts of the gorge. I would suggest trying to see the gorge from as many perspectives as possible: Maid of the Mist, outlook towers, bike trails, jet boat rides, etc.

there's no real way to climb the falls, but you can climb stairs on the walls of the gorge that go from near river level up to the height of the top of the falls, since this is all you can do, i guess this counts.

Ok I took the jet boat. It starts at Niagara on the lake and proceeds up the gorge for 9 miles to the whirlpool. I had kayaked some rapids on the New River but was unprepared for this event. Both banks are well wooded and show liitle encroachment for several miles

A mile or so below the rapids, the water while flat begins to look kind of strange with powerful eddies swirling in. The operators said that a non-waterproof camera would be destroyed and they were right we did take in swimming pools of water as we passed the Niagara Glen bouldering area. There were steep hiking trails in the woods on either side.This gorge looks quite impressive from the river which is 1.25 times the volume of the Columbia and is compressed between far narrower walls. The Whirlpool itself is 3 miles below the falls, so you are spared the circus atmosphere.